Yahoo dropped for Google in Ubuntu

Canonical 'flap' three months after change

Only three months after being announced as the new default search engine for Ubuntu, Yahoo has been dropped in favour of Google by Canonical.

In a short post, Canonical's manager Rick Spencer insisted that it was not the company' s intention to 'flap' between providers, blaming unpredictable changes to the circumstances.

"Each release we determine the best default web browser and the best default search engine for Ubuntu," explained Spencer.

"When choosing the best default search provider, we consider factors such as user experience, user preferences, and costs and benefits for Ubuntu and the browsers and other projects that make up Ubuntu."

Default changes

"Up until Ubuntu 9.10 these defaults have always been Firefox and Google. Earlier in the 10.04 cycle I announced that we would be changing the default search provider to Yahoo, and we implemented that change for several milestones," he added.

"However, for the final release, we will use Google as the default provider. I have asked the Ubuntu Desktop team to change the default back to Google as soon as reasonably possible, but certainly by final freeze on April 15th."

The change will be seen as a little embarrassing for all concerned – not least for Canonical who announced the change to Yahoo at the beginning of 2010.

"It was not our intention to "flap" between providers, but the underlying circumstances can change unpredictably. In this case, choosing Google will be familiar to everybody upgrading from 9.10 to 10.04 and the change will only be visible to those who have been part of the development cycle for 10.04," concluded Spencer.

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Patrick (Twitter) is Global Editor-in-Chief for techradar, and has been with the site since its launch in 2008. He is a longstanding judge of the T3 Awards, been quoted or seen on everything from the The Sun to Sky News and is on the #CoolBrands Council. He started his career in football, making him one of approximately one journalists to have covered both a World Cup final and an iPhone launch.